Responsibility and Commitment
by Cassandra Spayke
Summary: It is no small thing, to be second-in-command of a galaxy wide smuggling operation or head of a Jedi Praxeum. Responsibility & commitment are matters not be taken & given lightly, & that includes when it comes to marriage. Yes, another missing moments from VOTF story. Set in the 15 days between leaving Nirauan & the signing of the treaty on the Chimeara. T for safety, but mostly K
1. Chapter 1

"I don't believe it," he murmured, still reading. "Mara, he found it. He _found _it."

"Wonderful. Found _what?"_

"What else?" Luke looked up at her. "Thrawn's copy of the Caamas Document."

_- Vision of the Future by Timothy Zahn, Chapter 42_

* * *

Mara stared at him, eyes wide in disbelief. "The Caamas Document? No. You're kidding."

"Come and take a look for yourself."

She left the pilot's chair and crossed to the droid alcove, falling to her knees beside Luke. "Is it complete?"

"Near as I can tell. I'm sure the NRI will put its best slicers on it before they pronounce it authentic, but…." He smiled at her, elation radiating freely. "This should stop new conflicts from breaking out."

"And here I thought my best contribution to the continued existence of the New Republic was crashing my ship." She laughed, partly because Luke was so happy and his joy poured across their new bond. But mostly because nothing less than finding the document that would save the New Republic from self-destructing could be the fitting conclusion to what had been the most strange, frustrating, terrifying, amazing, wonderful three weeks of her life.

"Wonderful, yes," Luke murmured, picking up her thought. She looked down and realized she'd laced her fingers with his. How did that happen? Yes, this new awareness, this new…thing…was wonderful, but-

His finger lifted her chin. And his lips closed over hers.

The tiny portion of her mind that wasn't fully occupied with kissing him back and feeling his emotions – her emotions – _their_ emotions flow through their Force bond, was left to wonder at how natural it felt. How _right_. If anyone had told her, when she and the crew of the _Starry Ice_ rescued Luke from the Cavirlhu pirate base, that a month later she would be wrapped tight in his arms without any hesitation, any embarrassment, any awkwardness at all – she would have taken the speaker's head off. Literally.

But that was then, this was now, and….

All semblance of conscious thought fled as the kiss deepened – her initiative, his, she didn't know and truthfully didn't care. His hands tangled in her still damp hair as she rose on her knees to fit herself more closely against his chest.

But just as her fingers were reaching for the top fastener of his jumpsuit, Luke abruptly pulled away.

She blinked, trying to regain equilibrium. "Is this payback for earlier? Because as much as I was enjoying it, I really didn't want to survive the clone chamber only to die of hypothermia—"

"Mara." His fingers were still intertwined in her hair, but now they were gently exploring her scalp. "What happened to your head?" He lingered in one area, pressed softly.

"Ow." She raised her hand to meet his, and discovered a lump the size of a Coruscant game fowl egg. "I don't know. Must have hit it somewhere along the way. Perhaps when I was in the hibernation trance."

He undid the clasp that held what remained of her braid, the better to part her hair so he could see the area surrounding her injury. "You're bleeding," he said. His voice was calm, but underneath Mara caught a current of swirling emotions. He was reliving the trepidation he felt when he first spied her floating in the pool of water after they escaped the cloning chamber. Floating just like his vision. And he feared that she had, indeed, hit her head during their escape and died—

"But I didn't die." Her hand found his and closed over his fingers, stilling their careful exploration of her wound. She caught his gaze, held it steady with hers. "I meant what I said earlier. If this-," she waved her free hand back and forth between them, "-is going to work-"

"Relationship, Mara. The word you're searching for is relationship. You can say it. I have faith in you." His gaze remained locked on hers, but a corner of his mouth twitched upward.

She rolled her eyes, but the gesture was free of its usual animosity. "Fine. _Relationship_," she drew out the word. "If it's going to work, you have to move past this fear of harming the other person. Harming me in particular. Besides," she said, throwing him a lop-sided smirk, "you, of all people, know that my skull is plenty thick."

"Point taken." He picked up her hand, bringing her palm to his lips for a light kiss. "Thick skull."

She laughed, even as an odd thrill traveled from her scalp to her toes at the feel of his lips against her skin. "That wasn't precisely my point, but it will…." A hole in the left shoulder of his jumpsuit, its edges charred and darkly stained, caught her gaze. She cautiously pushed the cloth aside to reveal a nasty, angry-looking wound underneath. To her eyes, it almost rivaled the direct blast she had taken from a Chiss charric. The direct blast that put her in a healing trance for five days. "Is this from the sentinel droid?" she asked. "The bolt I didn't deflect in time?" Worry for him and anger at herself chased each other through her mind.

"It's nothing." He shrugged.

"You don't know that. Even if the burn isn't bothering you, Force only knows what was in that lake water. There could be parasites, infectious agents, a hundred alien diseases-" She stopped her list when a wide grin lit up his face. "What?"

"Not so easy to avoid concern, is it?"

She narrowed her gaze at him. "Please note I am not refusing to enter into a-," she started to wave her hand, realized what she was doing, and dropped it to her side, "-_relationship _out of fear of hurting the other person."

"Neither am I," he pointed out in all complete honesty. "I'm all the way in. So get used to the worry for your well-being, Mara. Comes with the-," and he waved his hand between them, "-territory."

She opened her mouth to retort, took another look at the blaster wound on his shoulder, and thought better of it. "If I say fine, you can continue your overprotective ways with minimal - minimal, not zero - objection from me, will you go into a healing trance and take care of that?"

"I thought the goal was to avoid unnecessary use of the Force?" He continued to grin. Even without the bond she could tell he was enjoying this.

As was she, to be truthful.

"It's not unnecessary if it saves you weeks in a medbay thanks to an alien infection no one knows how to cure," she said tartly.

"Another good point." His thumb traced abstract patterns on her palm, causing shivers to dance up and down her spine. Shivers that were, on the whole, rather pleasant and not unwelcome. "How long until we get to our first destination?" he asked.

She checked her chrono. "We should be dropping out of hyperspace right about…now." A soft alarm began to chime from the flight deck, punctuating her words. "I programmed a short jump first, in case Parck and Fel were able to record our vector. You might want to man the weapons system, on the off chance this ship has a tracking system and they have friends ready and waiting for us."

She started to rise, wincing slightly as stiff muscles protested their stay on a cold metal surface. Luke sprung to his feet first and helped pull her upright. "Anything other than a bump on the head I should know about?" he asked, running his gaze over her jumpsuit, seeking new rips and tears.

She shook her head. "Just some soreness. Nothing time won't heal." She raised an eyebrow, cutting off his next suggestion. "One of us needs to stay alert in case anything happens with the ship. Neither of us is familiar with this alien technology, after all. Besides," and she smiled, the first open, joyous smile she'd given anyone in a long time, "It's my turn to wake you up."


	2. Chapter 2

They both agreed they felt no threat as their borrowed ship entered realspace. The sensor outlays confirmed no immediate traffic in the area. Mara leaned back in the pilot's chair and sighed, the tension slowly leaving her shoulders. They were truly and completely free of the Hand of Thrawn.

What they did with their knowledge about the Hand of Thrawn's existence was still a concern, however.

She glanced over at Luke. He felt the same as she did, she sensed, a mixture of relief at being free of retaliation plus elation at bringing the Caamas Doument home with them. But now that she knew what to look for, she also detected an increase in his use of pain suppression techniques. That blaster wound had to hurt, despite his casual dismissal.

"Artoo, did the ship get the latest coordinates? Everything set?" she called back to the droid alcove.

The droid whistled an affirmative.

"Where to next?" Luke asked. "New Republic outpost or one of Karrde's installations?"

"At first I thought New Republic, considering what Artoo is carrying. But while I have every respect for your and Leia's ability to keep leaks contained, I know I have excellent leverage over Karrde's employees. And the less people talk about this ship, or where it might come from, the better. We can check in, and then assess how to best get the Caamas Document into the right hands with the minimal amount of questions." Mara pushed on the lever. A slight shake from the vessel, and the stars blurred and ran together outside the canopy.

"Good thinking." She was right about the wound. His voice showed the strain, even if he was doing his best to shield the pain from her.

She extricated herself from her crash webbing and stood beside his chair. "The closest sector relay base is Comra. We should be there in five hours. You want to stay here for the healing trance? There might also be pilot couches in the back."

He released his own crash webbing and stood up. "This wasn't the most comfortable of chairs the last time. Let's see what else is on offer."

He held out his hand to her. She took with only the barest of hesitations. There was a time when, if he had put out his hand expecting her to hold it for any reason other than their immediate survival, he would've found himself the possessor of two cybernetic prosthetics instead of one. But now, all she could do was marvel at how natural, how _right_ being with him felt.

The Force, after all, was known to work in mysterious ways.

As she suspected, there were indeed two pilot's couches at the back of the ship, one on either side of the narrow compartment. Storage bins lined the walls above, and a small cooker and icer were built in to the facing wall. It made sense; this was a long range vessel, meant to be flown by more than one pilot, and they would need supplies, food and a place to rest during long hyperspace voyages.

She searched the bins and found two thin heat-reflective blankets stuffed in a dark corner, but not much more. Standard Imperial procedure: after each mission, the ships would be stripped of all non-necessary items. The supplies would then be counted, put back into general inventory, and reassigned as needed. They were lucky the blankets had been missed.

She handed one to Luke, wrapping the other around her shoulders to ward off the chill. The Chiss, apparently, liked their temperatures on the cool side. The humans flying with them must have learned to adapt.

Luke dropped onto the nearest couch and pulled her down beside him, wrapping his blanket tight around the two of them. For a few minutes they sat in silence, content to rest in relative safety and comfort for the first time in weeks.

Their new bond allowed Mara to follow the flow of his thoughts – not words per se, but the colors, the emotions, the play as they tumbled and slid against each other. It was like plunging one's hands into a bowl of luminous gems, lifting them, and watching the jewels stream through one's fingers in a brilliant display.

And he was watching her thoughts, she knew, even though hers didn't have the same vivid radiance as his. He just innately…shone…in the Force. He always had, to her. Ever since Wayland. Which might account for why, after the events on Byss, she'd found it so difficult to be near him for longer than a week.

She knew she had a responsibility to develop her Force skills. The galaxy made that blatantly clear to her time after time, no matter how fast and how far she tried to run from it. And completing her training under Luke's tutelage would have fulfilled it.

But she also knew that once she gave a commitment, it was near-impossible for her to break it. No matter the personal cost. She once committed herself to the Empire's cause with her entire heart, soul and mind, and she almost didn't escape from from it alive. She certainly didn't escape from it whole. Pieces of her were yet missing.

And she couldn't, wouldn't, allow that to happen to her again.

While the core of Luke's presence continued to burn bright despite his experiences on Byss, the edges became murky, dank, decaying. The seeping darkness repelled her, but at the same time it held a strong fascination, an affinity that touched the deep, hidden place Palpatine had carved in her mind.

This dichotomy, the pull and push of the light and the dark, meant she couldn't stay away from Luke for very long. She was still furious at herself for making up the flimsiest of excuses to stop by Yavin IV, especially when Callista had been in residence. But she couldn't stay near him, either, and remain her own person. Not while there was a still a dark side influence on his actions. The combination of the light she admired, even craved, and the darkness that had the power to command her was no match for even her stubborn will. She would've been subsumed like so much space dust in a supernova, and hating him for it.

But now…she leaned her head on his shoulder as he tightened his arms around her. He would always have a dark side taint, a reminder and a warning. Just as she would never be fully free of the Emperor's Hand. But the darkness no longer ate at his edges, threatening his center. It was merely a waft of something distasteful, easily waved away. She could walk at his side step in step, committed to him and to her responsibilities as a Jedi Knight, without fear of losing herself in the process.

"I wish you had come up with more excuses to visit Yavin," Luke murmured into her hair.

She laughed. "This is where I tell you to stay out of my head, but since I'm shamelessly eavesdropping on yours, it doesn't have the same impact."

He loosened his grip on her just enough to enable him to turn and look her in the eye. "I'm curious. Why didn't you say anything about the dark side earlier? Byss was nine years ago."

She searched his gaze, and his emotions. There was no condemnation, no regret. Just curiosity, as he said. "That would have gone over oh so well. The Emperor's Hand telling the Jedi Master that one of them is acting under a dark side influence, and it isn't her."

"Didn't stop you in the caves," he pointed out.

She shrugged. "Perhaps because it was just us. No Jedi Academy, no New Republic officials, no smugglers or pirates. No one automatically agreeing with you just because you're the last surviving Jedi Master, or suspecting me of ulterior motives because of my past or my employment." Her mouth quirked upwards. "Besides, you pretty much arrived at the same conclusion by yourself. Any earlier and all my fine lecturing would've fallen on deaf ears."

He nodded and pulled her close against him once more. "I suppose you're right. No, I can sense that you're right. I guess I should just be thankful that this path was finally cleared, and we're on it now."

"Even without the dark side influence, I don't know that I could have stayed on Yavin IV and completed my training the way you wanted me to." She shook her head. "Not then. I wasn't ready."

"I know." His hand came up to stroke her hair. "I always knew that you needed time, and lots of space, to work though who and what you wanted to be." She felt his smile more than saw it. "But you can't blame me for hoping you'd be able to work some of that out while on the same planet as me. Which is why I pushed you regarding your training."

"Well, you get to train me now." She pulled slightly away, sitting up straight. "Better late than never. And speaking of things that are late, healing trance. You. Now."

He threw her a look of mock annoyance, but she could sense the exhaustion starting to overwhelm the pain suppression. "Are you always going to be this demanding?'

"You've known me how long?" Mara rose from the couch so he could stretch out.

"Right. At least there isn't a blaster being held to my head."

"It can be arranged." She spread the blanket over him, her hands lingering as she pulled it over his chest. "Pleasant healing, Luke."

He caught her left hand. "Same wake up phrase as you, Mara. Let's see if you can say it." His gaze blazed brightly with amusement, but a touch of trepidation lingered deep in the blue depths.

Heat rose in her cheeks, despite the cool temperature of the room. He was referring to her doubts in the cloning chamber as to whether he could speak the words out loud. To her. "I accept the challenge." She bent down, pressed a quick but fierce kiss on his lips. "Now heal."

She watched as he slipped into the trance, his luminous thoughts dimming as their movements calmed and stilled. When she was sure he was safely under, she pulled her hand from his grasp and returned to the flight deck.

Artoo whistled a question. "He's going to sleep until we get to Comra," she told the droid. "How about you? Anything we should know about your systems? You took a lot of bumps, not to mention an unexpected swim."

Artoo chortled a negative reply, followed by a series of beeps and chirps too fast for her to follow. She glanced at the display scene built into the droid alcove and smiled. "Yes, I'm sure Threepio will be very jealous when he learns you saved the New Republic by finding the Caamas Document."

Another whistled question. "Will I power down, too? No, Someone needs to watch the ship."

If a droid could sound indignant, Artoo fit the description.

"Of course I trust you. But this is Imperial tech—"

Another series of loud electronic sounds.

"Yes, I'd heard you provided vital communication with the Death Star's systems. I have no doubt you can handle the Imperial codes. But the ship is also Chiss—"

A noise that sounded distinctly like a human sticking its tongue out and blowing it disparagingly came from Artoo.

She gave up. She knew when she was in a argument she couldn't win. "Okay, okay," she said. "Wake me when we're a half-hour out from Comra. Tell me, does this tendency to be protective come from Luke, or did he learn it from you?"

A self-satisfied bleep was her only response.

Truth to tell, she didn't need to be scolded by a droid to feel sleep calling her name. And if they did meet enemies on their way to Comra, a few hours of rest to recharge her badly depleted stores of energy would not be remiss.

And for once, dreams would be very welcome. She returned to the pilot's chair, and drew the blanket she wore tighter around her shoulders. The flight deck was cooler than the pilot rest area in the back, and her clothes and hair were still not completely dry. But the memories of the past day, hugged tight like the priceless treasures they were, promised to keep her more than warm. Mara strapped herself in, and closed her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

"I love you, Luke."

Luke blinked, consciousness returning one stiff muscle at a time. Waking up from a Force healing trance was mentally disorienting and physically uncomfortable at best. Mouth dry, stomach empty, and reflexes slow and creaky, it was far from his list of preferable activities.

Until now.

Now, with Mara Jade telling him she loved him, he decided he liked waking up from a Force trance. A lot. He turned his head to smile at her as she kneeled by his couch. Her brilliant green gaze softened as she felt him come back to full awareness through their bond, and she bent over to press a soft, lingering kiss against his lips.

If this was how she accepted all his challenges, he very much looked forward to the next fifty or sixty years.

She pulled back and raised an eyebrow. "Fifty years, Skywalker? Really? With your talent for getting into trouble?"

"But you'll be there. I figure that will even the odds." He struggled to sit up, and winced when his left shoulder hit the bulkhead.

Instantly she was at his side. "Let me see."

"I'm fine. Just residual stiffness from the trance."

She gently examined the area that had been hit by the blaster bolt. Her touch was cool, but his skin sparked hot in the wake of those slender fingers. "You still have a burn mark, but at least it's a healthy pink instead of a festering red. You really do need to teach me how to do that."

"It's at the top of the list. How long was I out?" The ship was no longer moving at lightspeed, he noticed.

"Just over five hours. I thought about leaving you under for longer, but we've dropped into orbit over Comra and, well, something tells me you should be awake for this."

"Your danger sense?" Even as he spoke, Luke was reaching out to the Force, seeking to identify possible threats. But instead he felt…

"I told you." Mara's gaze was wide and full of wonder. "You sense it, too. Joy. Relief. Glee. From nearly everyone on the planet."

* * *

Their landing on Comra was uneventful, if one counted landing in the middle of a full-on impromptu celebration as normal. Mara's personal access code meant no questions were asked when they asked to land, not that anyone appeared to be alert or even occupying their posts. It was a good thing both Mara and he were expert pilots, Luke thought, for all help they received from the port services droid left alone to handle the complicated landing guidance system.

They exited the Chiss-Imperial ship, Mara locking the hanger reserved for Karrde and his associates behind them. Not that they had to worry too much about the ship attracting attention from the wrong people. Karrde maintained his relay station in Jaegartown, a medium sized city located in the center of a landmass in the planet's southern hemisphere. The size of the city was big enough so that the inhabitants were used to seeing off-worlders, and they didn't ask too many questions about comings and goings. But Jaegartown itself was too small and lacked any industries or access to natural resources that would attract pointed attention from either the Imperial Remnant or the New Republic. In addition, the natives were small, bipedal aliens with iridescent scaly skin, deeply set eyes, and large slit noses used for both breathing and communicating. While they could learn and understand Basic, speaking it was a different matter. Therefore, most humans found it hard to have a casual conversation with a Comraian.

In other words, Jaegartown was a perfect rest and refueling stop for smugglers seeking to trade in this quadrant yet maintain a low profile. And with some "found" experimental tech that entered into Karrde's possession – Luke decided it would be best not to question too closely at just how it made its way into Karrde's hands – the communication resources rivaled anything on Coruscant. Actually, considering the current bureaucratic morass that served as the New Republic's requisitioning system, Comra's was better.

Luke, Mara and Artoo exited the spaceport, and were immediately swept into a sea of singing, chanting inhabitants. Most of them were happily drunk despite the sun's position directly overhead, indicating that local planet time was close to midday. After not too many minutes, Luke's ears rang from the cacophony of noise makers, drums and even celebratory blaster fire. Despite Jedi senses working overtime, he barely managed to avoid tripping over a collection of empty Forvish ale bottles left to roll in the street. A merrymaker bounced into Mara and Luke drew her closer to him, but the Comraian only smiled, burped, and danced away.

"What is going on?" Luke asked. He couldn't get a clear read on the Comraian minds, as was usual for an alien species. "Local holiday?"

"I have no idea," Mara muttered. "If so, it's a new one to me. And damn inconvenient."

He threw her a quick glance. The longer they remained unmet by anyone from Karrde's organization, the tighter her mouth compressed into a thin line. "This is not the way Karrde and I run things," she muttered. "It seems we've grown a bit too lax with the outlaying stations."

Luke squeezed the hand he held. Mara and Karrde oversaw a vast enterprise, almost as big and as complicated as the New Republic government itself. She couldn't be everywhere at once.

"Remember that the next time you kick yourself over not personally handling every galactic crisis that pops up," she growled under her breath. But she returned his pressure with a squeeze of her own. Still, as they fought their way against the tide of Comraian revelry toward the low, unassuming building on the outskirts that Karrde used as his base, he felt her mind churn with checklists of reports, improvements, and personnel changes she would make.

They managed to arrive at the station with no further jostling, once Artoo engaged his arc welder to clear a path for them. Mara punched her access code into the building's security system. "You're going to need a new touchpad if you keep abusing it that way," Luke murmured, hoping to diffuse the tension he could feel massing around her.

She didn't look at him. "This is my business, Skywalker." Her arms were wrapped tight around her chest, her thoughts gathered just as close, as she waited for the system to acknowledge her.

"So stay out of it? Point taken." He didn't really expect any other response. He knew better than to joke with her when she was infuriated. But old habits died hard, no matter how quick one wanted the death to occur.

She turned to look at him, her gaze softening. To his surprise, she wasn't angry. At least not at him. "No, that's not what I meant. This is my _business_. Well, mine and Karrde's. This station is my responsibility, Luke. And I-" The hiss of hydraulics as the door opened cut off her words.

The door revealed a large room, ringed with individual listening stations that scanned for transmission and holobays for private comms. A knot of men and women stood gathered around the large comm station that dominated the center of the space, intent on its various screens and talking amongst themselves. More bottles of alcohol, this time whiskey and rum, stood empty on various work areas. No one looked up as Luke, Mara and Artoo entered.

Mara cleared her throat. Loudly.

Finally, a large man tore his eyes away from the screen in front of him and blinked up at them. "What the...Jade? You're alive! And who is that with you...by stars, it's Skywalker! Welcome!" He got up from his chair and bounded over to them, hand extended. Luke shook it.

Mara didn't. "We landed over an hour ago, Ki'stan," she said with a scowl. "You're the station chief. Why aren't you following the established procedures? Explain." But Luke could feel her relax, slightly, in the face of the man's obvious joy at seeing them.

Ki'stan didn't seem to notice that she snubbed his hand. He practically danced around them, like the overgrown canine he resembled. "This day can't get better," he chortled. "First the peace treaty, now you walk through the door with all your limbs intact—"

"Wait. Peace treaty?"

"What peace treaty?"

Luke and Mara spoke at the same time.

Ki'stan stopped and looked between them, his bushy gray eyebrows nearly meeting in the middle of his forehead. "The peace treaty between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant, of course. You really didn't know? Say, where were you, Jade, anyway? Karrde made us focus on slicing any and all transmissions, looking for any references to your location."

Mara narrowed her gaze. "Really. So where were you when I called for landing assistance?" she asked pointedly.

Ki'stan held up his hands. "Hey, can't catch them all, not on a day like today! Here, take a comm screen for yourself. You'll want to see this. We still can't believe it." He paused, and gave Mara a wide, relieved smile. "And I really am glad you're okay. Stuff has piled up, what with both you and Karrde out of commission—"

"What happened to Karrde?" This time, Luke and Mara even used the same words.

Ki'stan looked between them again. He raised his brows so high, they almost hit his hairline. "If you don't know, then no one does. Just handed the reins over to Aves saying something about a vital mission only Karrde could handle. And, well, you know Aves." He shrugged, and then broke into another face-stretching grin. "Everyone will be glad you're back, Jade. At least on the communications side. Aves really only cares about negotiating trade deals these days."

Luke and Mara exchanged glances. Neither of them felt any guidance from the Force regarding Karrde's fate, but neither they did get the sense that anything disturbing had happened to him. "If there is a peace treaty, " Luke began.

"I know, " she said. "Ki'stan, can you get us a secure channel? And I mean secure," she stressed the last word. "And an empty, swept room. If I find a listening device..." her voice trailed off ominously.

"But of course! Let me see what we have available. It might take some time to check..."

"You don't know your resources off the top of your head?" Mara's voice was low. Too low.

Ki'stan finally seemed to pick up on Mara's mood. "We're a bit, um, overwhelmed by the news. I, ah, hope you won't think this how we normally conduct business?" He looked hopefully at her. "Big day today. Big, big day."

She didn't respond in words. Her expression, however, spoke volumes.

He visibly swallowed, and turned his head toward the staff members still crowded together in the middle of the room. "Cinzi! Hrrssk! Get away from that comm station and make sure HoloBay D is prepped for security protocols 54R6, now!" He bustled away, clapping his hands and shooing people back to their work areas.

Mara turned to Luke. She kept her outward attitude of annoyed impatience, but he could sense the conflicting emotions swirling around her, a kaleidoscope of shifting colors and textures, tumbling too fast for him to catch and identify. Probably too fast for her to sort through as well, he thought.

As were his own emotions. The war had been part of his life for so long, had shaped his life so long. Images spilled across a mental screen, flashing one after the other: two burned skeletons under twin suns, a vibrant planet vaporized into dead rocks, a long lethal trench with no room for error, Leia in robes of white, Leia in snow gear of white, Han in carbonite, Leia's tear-stained face, _his father, _Jabba's palace and a dancer dressed in blue_,_ an Emperor casting lightning without end, _his father, _ghost-tinged visions waving goodbye, artful Grand Admirals and superweapons... And the deaths. Some more senseless than others, some that never should have happened, all of them an unspeakable waste.

The announcement of the end of the long, chaotic, lethal conflict certainly brought happiness. But it also brought regrets, anger, harsh disappointment.

Mara touched his hand. If anyone had their life molded and distorted by the Empire, the Rebellion, and the ongoing conflict, it was she. But a slow, sweet smile played on her lips as her gaze caught and held his. "Peace," she breathed.

"Peace," he agreed, with an answering smile that started on his face and ended deep in his soul.

They stood together for a moment, their bodies apart but their minds entwined, and drank in the promise of the word.


	4. Chapter 4

Many hours later, Luke shut down the holodisplay in the secure room assigned to him and Mara by Ki'stan. Getting a message of any length to Leia had been difficult from this distance, even with Karrde's state of the art communications arrays and Artoo doing his best to run interference with the systems. At least they both knew their twin had survived yet another crisis. The holonews brought the welcome information that the destruction of Bothawui had been diverted, for now, and Luke hoped that the Caamas Document held by Artoo would stave off any future brushfires.

Mara managed to contact Karrde, who had somehow gotten himself onboard an Imperial Star Destroyer with Admiral Pellaeon, of all people. She told Luke both Karrde and she agreed to reserve the tales of what occurred to each of them over the last three weeks for a time when they could talk in person. Alone.

Of the rumored return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the holonews was silent. Almost too silent, Luke thought. He looked over at Mara, sitting at a desk across the room, nose deep in a datapad with a stack of data cards piled up next to her. Her sacrifice may have indeed saved the New Republic. According to the most reliable reports, the treaty was apparently Pellaeon's idea. Luke knew the Imperial admiral was an honorable man, but also highly perceptive and dedicated to his cause. If he could draw on the advice of Parck and Fel, plus the resources of whatever they had hidden…the Imperial Remnant might have never needed to sue for peace.

She looked up and caught his gaze. "Finished talking to Leia?"

"In a way. The signal was too weak to do much more than wave at each other. But at least she knows we're alive."

Mara nodded and put down her datapad, rubbing her eyes. They'd both taken advantage of the station's communal 'fresher to scrub off Nirauan dirt and dried lake scum, and were now sporting new jumpsuits. Mara gave their old ones to the station's custodial droid with orders to incinerate them. Luke was finally free of the scratchy facial hair he'd grown while maneuvering the caves, while Mara used up nearly an entire bottle of cleanser on her hair. But it had been a momentary break in an otherwise frustrating scramble to set up communications with the people who mattered the most. Luke still ached to receive a decent report from the Jedi academy, and Mara hadn't stopped reviewing business accounts since she finished trading messages with Karrde.

Her damp red-gold hair gleamed in the room's artificial light. Stray strands curled against cheeks turned rosy by her recent sanistream. But her green eyes were absent their usual bright intensity, while violet shadows took up residence underneath them. Luke feared that she would be buried in datacards before much longer. Already new communiqués marked to her attention were starting to arrive. Ki'stan couldn't wait to spread the news of her safe return.

"As nice as it is in here," Luke began.

"We need to get the Caamas Document to the New Republic as soon as possible," Mara finished. "Oh, don't give me that look. I don't need to be in your head to know that's the only possible next step." She picked up a bag provided by Ki'stan and started to shovel data cards into it. "I'll start prepping for departure."

"That wasn't precisely what I was going to say," he said. That proved she was tired. "As nice as it is in here, we should find sleeping accommodations."

Her hands stopped moving. "Oh," she said. She held her thoughts and emotions just as immobile.

"You're about to fall face first into your datapad," he pointed out. "You need sleep."

"I got a few hours on the ship while you were in the healing trance," she said. She finished loading the bag but kept her mind still. "I'm fine."

"Lesson number two: in addition to needing air to function properly, a Jedi requires rest. Especially when fatigue is threatening to shut her down."

She threw him a mock-annoyed look. "Very funny. Besides, I made it three days without sleep on Myrkr. A few more hours now won't kill me."

"Three days on stimpills and you almost became a vornskr's meal."

"Details." She waved them away. "And we couldn't use the Force to sustain our energy, remember? "

"Not likely to forget. But tell me again, which one of us doesn't believe in unnecessary use of the Force?"

She sighed. "I'm trying to get as much done as possible before we leave and can't be commed in hyperspace. And these are all marked urgent." She lifted the bag, its sides bulging. "There are at least thirty different transmissions that seem…off…and should be properly sliced and analyzed. And—"

"And they will keep one more day." Couldn't she feel the exhaustion coming off her in waves? He certainly did.

She crossed her arms and regarded him coolly. "So when reports come in from the academy, and you tie yourself up in knots trying to solve every single problem, I can throw this conversation back at you? You're not the only with responsibilities, Luke." She picked up her datapad and began to scroll.

He sat back and regarded her. "I know that. All I'm saying is that you can face them more effectively after some rest." But it wasn't only work that concerned her. He felt a hesitation, or trepidation, pressing at the edges of her mind. His mouth twisted. "It's just sleep, Mara," he said gently. "Alone. I'll stay here and make sure the ship is prepped and supplied for the journey to Coruscant."

She looked up, datapad forgotten. Her drowsy gaze sharpened, sprang to blazing life. "Wait. You think this is because I don't want to share a bed with you?" Her voice rose, shaking slightly. "You're such an idiot, Skywalker."

She opened up her senses and a wave of hot desire and deep longing washed over him, stunning him with its visceral immediacy. It was the equal of his yearning for her, tamped down but boiling underneath carefully constructed layers of reserve, just as strong and as fierce. It took every ounce of control he had and then some to stay in his chair, mindful of the relay station staff just visible through the transparisteel window, when every cell of his body wanted to grab her, pull her to him, make her _his_.

"You're an idiot," she repeated, her eyes closed, her chest rapidly rising and falling. Her struggle to regain control was as difficult as his. "This is not about _sleep_," she said, her voice low and full of promise to his ears, "but rather where to sleep. Here," and she indicated the greater relay station outside the door of their room, "is not where I want to find accommodations. Ki'stan is a decent station chief, but when it comes to gossip, he has all the discretion of a vro-cat.

"Besides," she paused, and now she freely shared the hesitation and trepidation washing over her thoughts, "I'd rather we kept this new, um, relationship to ourselves. For now. Until we have to tell Karrde and your family." She looked over at him. "If that's okay."

Luke finally trusted himself enough to get up from his chair. He walked over to where Mara sat, removed the datapad she still held from her grasp, and pulled her up to stand with him. Only the knowledge that anyone could walk past the window at any time kept him from wrapping her in his arms. "It is unfamiliar territory, isn't it?" he said.

She nodded, her shoulders relaxing. "Yes. But at this same time it's...comfortable. I don't know how else to describe it."

"Very comfortable." He ran his thumbs over the back of the hands he held, careful to keep the connection out of sight of the window. "But unusual. This isn't the typical courtship."

She laughed. "That's the understatement of the century. No one will believe us."

"Oh, I don't know. Some will say they've known it all along," he said, thinking of Han's pointed comments about Mara over the years.

"It's like…coming home," she said, moving nearer to him. "Only—"

"—the furniture is not where you left it—"

"—and you stumble around, trying to orient yourself—

"—yet you know you wouldn't want to be anywhere else. You're exactly where you are meant to be," he finished.

She smiled. Why had he never noticed before what a beautiful smile she had? It lit her up from within, made those amazing eyes shine and the room seem brighter. "So I'd like it if we could explore the new home by ourselves for a while," she said. "With no New Republic, no Jedi, no Qom Qae, no Chiss firing charrics—"

"No smugglers, no information brokers, no pirates, no clones," he concluded.

"Precisely. Because as you well know, the moment we tell anyone the entire galaxy will want to weigh in. You are the only surviving Jedi Master after all," she said, with a rueful twist to her mouth.

Right. He had his own responsibilities and commitments. Responsibilities and commitments that would kick into hyperdrive as soon as he as was able to freely communicate with the academy and Coruscant.

"It's going to take us eight days to get to the Core Worlds," Mara said, squeezing his hands. "Maybe nine. Artoo still hasn't gotten an accurate power reading off the ship's engines. And we can leave tonight."

"Eight days?"

"Maybe nine."

They didn't need the bond to feel the heat of anticipation and the promise of long-thwarted emotions fulfilled.

He mock-sighed. "That's a pretty long voyage. It's bound to be boring in such a small ship."

She stepped even closer to him. "Oh, I have ideas about how to alleviate that," she breathed in his ear, and then quickly reached around him and snatched up her datapad and bag. "For example, I have plenty of work to keep me occupied. You can, I don't know, practice meditation." She threw him a slightly evil smirk.

"Or we can work on your Jedi training." He returned her smirk with an equally evil grin.

"Or we can think of something else," she said quickly, and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek after stretching out with her senses to make sure no one was observing them. "I need to arrange for supplies, plus Ki'stan and I are going to have a nice little chat."

"I hope you are kinder to him than Parck and Fel were to you," Luke murmured.

"Don't worry, Karrde frowns on his employees threatening to shoot each other. Besides, the consensus seems to be that I am a Jedi now. Might as well start acting like one." She stepped to the door and opened it. "Ready to leave in two hours?"

"Artoo and I will be waiting for you on board."

She smiled, setting the whole room alight, and left.


	5. Chapter 5

Ninety or so minutes later, Luke opened the door of the secure room and stepped into the main hall of the relay station. Artoo tootled sadly as he rolled behind Luke. "Yes, I know you would have liked to have caught up with the systems at the academy. I would have liked to catch up with the people at the academy, myself." But unfortunately, his efforts to get a message through to Yavin 4 had remained futile. Seeing Mara with her work reminded him of his, and he had to admit he was slightly envious she was able to check in with her colleagues when he wasn't.

The feeling went away when Ki'stan caught up with him. "Master Skywalker!" he puffed, his hands full of datacards. "These just came in for Captain Jade. Can you make sure she gets them? She left before I could give her the latest batch."

On second thought, perhaps a few more days without messages from the academy – or Coruscant, for the matter – might be fine. As it was, it looked like Mara would be buried in work enough for the two of them.

Luke took the datacards, hiding his smile upon hearing Ki'stan's formal address. So much for the "Skywalker" and "Jade" used to greet them when they arrived at the station. He also noticed that Ki'stan had exchanged his informal and slightly stained tunic for a crisp new one, neatly belted. Apparently Mara had indeed had her "talk" with the station chef.

And the station chief's appearance wasn't the only noticeable change. Desks that had been haphazardly placed were now arranged in symmetrical order. The empty bottles of alcohol were no longer in evidence, and the staff were sitting quietly at their stations, intent on their comm screens.

From their very first meeting, Luke knew that Mara was highly competent. He'd seen her demonstrate just how exceedingly capable she could be over a dozen times. But those tended to be life or death situations, usually with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance. Extraordinary moments, which called for extraordinary effort. Once the crisis was over, they parted and returned to their normal lives. Well, as normal as life got for them, of course.

So if someone had asked him, he would have said that Mara must be good at her job. Karrde was too smart, too savvy, and had too close an eye on the bottom line to make her his second-in-command otherwise.

But it was a different matter to actually see for himself just how accomplished and proficient she was as a matter of course.

"I, ah, see you've noticed a few changes in the layout," Ki'stan said. "I do hope you will let Captain Jade know I decided to take her suggestions on board?

"Where is she?"

"She's at your ship, delivering supplies. She wouldn't let anyone else accompany her past the hangar doors."

Luke nodded. "I should join her. Thank you for setting up the secure room. And for the hospitality."

Ki'stan trailed after him and Artoo as they made for the exit. "I do hope Captain Jade trusts us? It's not just the deliveries. She also refused to have the technicians on duty check over your ship." The station chief's round, open faced was creased with concern.

"It's not personal," Luke said. "We're protective of the ship, that's all."

"If you say so." Ki'stan didn't look too convinced. "She's one of the best in Karrde's organization. I remember the days before Karrde hired her, and I'm glad they're gone. I would hate to be transferred and have to report to Aves or someone else." He shuddered.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm sure Captain Jade is very grateful for your help. I know I am." Luke shook Ki'stan's hand in farewell. The outer doors opened, and Luke and Artoo began to weave their way toward to the spaceport.

The streets were quieter, most of the celebrants having apparently gone home, but there were still plenty of obstacles in the form of discarded rubbish and the odd dozen or so Comraians who decided to sleep off their revelry right then and there on the main thoroughfare. Luke had no problem stepping around them, but he occasionally had to assist Artoo. The slow progress gave him time to think about his last exchange with Ki'stan. Luke told the station chief not to worry about a transfer, and he meant it. He didn't get the sense from Mara that Ki'stan was in any danger of losing his job.

On the other hand, Ki'stan wanted to continue reporting to Mara. And that was a different matter. Because if Luke got his way, Mara would be out of Karrde's organization and ensconced with him at the academy yesterday.

For eight years, Luke had tried numerous and varied tactics to persuade Mara to stay on Yavin 4 and complete her training. He saw so clearly that she belonged in the ranks of the Jedi. She'd proven her bravery time and time again. She possessed a cool pragmatism, even under fire, that made her a natural leader. She was intelligent and intuitive with a spirit that refused to be cowed.

And of course, she was strong in the Force.

So she had to be a Jedi. He knew it. Knew it as true as he knew the beat of his own heart.

But now, with Ki'stan's words ringing in his ears…

For the first time he started to doubt his convictions.

* * *

Mara started her pre-flight walk-around of the Chiss-Imperial ship, checking for any hull damage or other issues that might cause problems during the flight. The ship's sensors should give her any information she might need, but she still liked to do a visual examination. She was unfamiliar with the ship's systems, and didn't know how reliable they were. She knew she could rely on her eyes.

Her powers of observation, after all, were just one of several tools she trusted implicitly to keep her alive.

She trusted her BlasTech. And her much smaller hold-out blaster, usually holstered under her sleeve. Her vibroblade.

She trusted her sarcasm and her caustic temper, tools sharply honed to catch opponents off guard and goad them into mistakes.

She trusted her body, the result of long hours spent with dance tutors, perfecting her grace and balance. And even longer hours spent in hand-to-hand combat training, tuning the grace and balance to a lethal level.

She trusted her lightsaber. It was one of the tools she most valued. She suspected that was why Luke gave it to her in the first place.

Mara glanced down at the weapon, its hilt firmly attached to her belt. She knew that some had looked upon the gift with raised eyebrows, reading implications and assumptions about their relationship into his gesture. Why else would the galaxy's last remaining Jedi give his would-be assassin the only tangible reminder he had of his father, if not as some sort of future promise?

But Luke couldn't and Leia wouldn't use a lightsaber that had cut a bloody swath during Anakin Skywalker's fall to Darth Vader. Nor would either of them want to see it on display in some Galactic Museum of Remembrance. However, Luke knew that to Mara, it would be just a tool. A very useful and much appreciated tool. And never a symbol of family fate or destiny preordained.

He gave it to her because he knew she trusted the Force above all the other tools in her personal survival kit, and would use the lightsaber accordingly.

He also trusted the Force. Even more that she did. But it wasn't a tool to him. It just…_was_. The Force was an integral part of him, and he could no more divorce his connection to it than he could sever his relationship with his sister.

But where Mara put her trust in tools, Luke put his trust in others. He believed that individuals were inherently good. He looked for the light in everyone, and rarely gave up on them. She was the beneficiary of his faith, she thought as she completed her inspection of the ship's undercarriage. Not many people would extend an unarmed hand to someone sworn to end their life. But Luke had extended his hand to her, repeatedly.

Still, she was glad she had a reliable arsenal at her disposal to back him up from now on. For there would be times when his trust would be inevitably betrayed.

She sighed as she stood up, stretching tight muscles that still needed to recover from the events on Nirauan. On the other hand, refusing to place her trust in others had cost her much. More than she had ever realized until recently. She had a feeling that while her tools would be of valuable use in this relationship – she was proud of herself for only hesitating a second - she would gain far more just by being exposed to Luke's open nature on a daily basis.

The thought was daunting, but even more exhilarating. With a soft smile on her face, she climbed up the exterior ladder to check the upper hull.

She felt Luke's approach, and unlocked the hangar bay access door with a Force nudge. "Hi," she called out. "We're just about ready to leave. Want to start the pre-flight systems check?"

"Of course," came his reply from somewhere below her. Mara heard the door to the ship open, and a thump that could only be Luke depositing Artoo carefully inside. His footsteps echoed as he walked around the ship until he stood underneath her position on top of the hull. "Are you finished up there?"

"Almost." Mara completed her check and moved to the side to peer down at him. Despite the dim light of the hangar she could see him clearly, as if he was lit from within. Maybe that was just the Force in him, she thought, stronger than ever. Or maybe it was because she now perceived him though their bond as well as with her eyes.

Or maybe, just maybe, this was how love worked. Seeing with the heart brought the clearest vision of all.

It was a pretty damn attractive sight.

Luke stared up at her, a generous grin curving his lips. He raised a self-satisfied eyebrow, and she returned it with a narrowed gaze. "Get out of my head, Skywalker."

But she accepted his offered hand, assisting her off the ladder and onto the hangar floor.

When both of her feet were firmly on the floor, he pulled her into a tight embrace, his lips finding hers. Mara sank into his kiss, the warmth of his mouth, the pressure of his hands, returning his heat with a fire of her own.

They broke apart, foreheads leaning against each other as breathing returned to something approximating normal.

"If this is your way of running a systems check, I can't say I disapprove," Mara said.

"I've been wanting to do that for hours."

"Eight days. Maybe nine. Just us."

"Which means the sooner we leave, the better. I'll check on Artoo and see how he's doing with the pre-flight sequence." With a reluctance that matched her own, Luke removed his hands from her waist and turned toward the ladder that led inside the ship. She missed the warm touch, but the bright spot that she was beginning to call the "Luke place" in her mind continued to burn.

"I'll comm ground control and ask for departure. And I should also comm Ki'stan and let him know we're leaving."

Luke hesitated in the doorway. "Speaking of, he gave me more datacards for you."

"Of course he did." Mara narrowed her gaze. She was still learning their bond, but something in him seemed to…dim…when she mentioned Ki'stan. "Is everything okay?"

"What could be wrong?" He threw her a grin, and disappeared into the ship.

Her gaze followed him. No, she wasn't imagining it. She sensed a definite hesitation or concern. And it had to do with her work.

Oh well. She had eight days – or nine – to figure it out. And she better. Before they arrived on Coruscant and announced the shift in their relationship.

And all Nine Corellian Hells would break loose.


End file.
